


Does He Love You the Same

by batbaby78



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-28
Updated: 2014-04-18
Packaged: 2018-01-17 07:24:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1378942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/batbaby78/pseuds/batbaby78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Katniss knows she deserves better. Peeta proves it to her more than once a night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“We…. shouldn’t….. be doing…. this” I try to get out between the kisses that are leaving me breathless. I can’t help but tighten my fingers in his blond, thick curls. Can’t help how his kisses make me only crave more of his lips on mine.

“When’s the last time he kissed you like this?” He questions, pulling only far enough away to look at my surely swollen lips. “Tell me, Katniss, when’s the last time?”

I look into those normally bright blue eyes that have turned almost black, his pupils are so big, and shake my head. “I can’t remember.”

Peeta’s right though, always is. I have never felt the heat I feel with him when I’m with Gale. Even when we first started dating, I never felt that need. Peeta is everything I didn’t know I was missing in a relationship. Someone I could talk to about anything and everything, someone who genuinely seemed to care about how my day was going. And then he was also playful and sexy and just so much more than what I had with Gale.

His lips crash back onto mine; sucking and nipping greedily at mine, making my center throb for more. I fall into him, not getting enough of the feel of him against me. Why we still our clothes on is a mystery to me and I let him know by tugging on the hem of his white t-shirt he didn’t bother to change out of when I called him over from work. Peeta lifts his arms and his mouth only leaves mine so I can get the clothing off and not wanting to waste any more time than needed, I shed mine as well. 

I let my fingers feel him as his mouth claims mine again. I will never tire of his lips; never tire of this want for him, this need for him. I play with the light dusting of hair on his chest, pinching his nipples a little, drawing his moan into my mouth. Tilting my head back some, so that he can kiss my neck, I tell him, “I’m not here to talk about him. I only want you.”

“Ugh, Katniss, I need to taste you.” Is his response as he pushes me back onto the mattress and slowly, so agonizingly slowly, kissing his way down the middle of my body, taking a second or two to flick his tongue against my already hardened nipples before he gets to his goal. My hips buck up against his mouth so he puts a big, strong hand on my not-so-tight-anymore belly, keeping me still. So instead, I grab the sheets on either side of me, bunching them in my fists, breathing hard already as he slides two fingers into my very wet, very ready entrance.

I begin to chant his name, nothing else coming to my mind except for how wonderful he makes me feel. I don’t want to think about how Gale never does this, or at least won’t unless I actually ask for it. I don’t want to think about how Gale’s kisses don’t leave me wanting anything else. I don’t want to think about how wrong what Peeta and I are doing here is. But it all comes flooding in at the most inappropriate time, whether I want them to or not. But then I feel Peeta’s hand on stomach move a bit and I know that he knows I’ve gone someplace else. 

His blond head pops up from between my legs, “What’s wrong, Katniss? Should I stop?”

I shake my head, “No, keep going, please keep going.” I’ll let my guilt find me later, when I’m alone again, like I always do.

He lowers his head, keeping his eyes trained on mine until they roll back into my head as his tongue finds my clit and nips at it like he were testing how hard he could do it, lapping up what comes dribbling out of me. And I’m right back where I was thirty seconds ago…..a mess of a woman being pleasured by the man she should have married. I begin to swear, which to Peeta is a good sign that I’m well on my way to finishing. He thrusts his thick fingers back into me hard and I cry out loudly at the sensation. I feel my walls convulse around his fingers and shout out, “Fuck! Oh fuck! Peeta!”

It’s never taken long for me to see stars with Peeta. He has known how to use his mouth and fingers and that glorious cock of his to make me come since the first day we met each other after almost two decades of not seeing one another. His grin is laughable but I’m too jellylike to care. But when he starts to climb back up my body, hooking my knees over his shoulders, my body responds quickly. 

I grab his head again, fingers fisting in those curls of his, bringing his pink, wet lips to mine, where I taste myself and feel the heat pool in my belly again. What is it about him that makes me a quivering mess with one look, one touch, one kiss? I don’t have an answer and I don’t care as he slides into me, not bothering with a condom since I went back on the pill for the exact purpose of feeling every inch, every ridge, of him fill me. As lubricated as I am, he still stretches me, every time, every wonderfully perfect time. 

He lets me adjust to his girth before pumping into me carefully at first, until my hips rise up to meet his. Then his thrusts get faster and harder as he holds himself above me on his forearms. I try to keep my gray eyes trained on his darkened blue ones, but when he hits that spot again, I can’t keep them open. I can feel my walls tightening around him again, so much quicker this time than the last, he feels so good.

“Come for me, baby. Just know that I’m not done with you yet.” He growls into my ear, his breath hot on my skin. Every part of me is tingling from his words and that sets me off into space again as my ankles hook behind his head. He thrusts into me hard one more time, stilling so that I can ride out my second orgasm in less than five minutes with him thick inside of me. Once I’ve calmed down a bit, he slides out of me, making me quickly miss his warmth. “Move over here to the edge.”

I do as he says even though I don’t really want to move but I know he hasn’t come yet and I want him inside of me when he does. He helps me onto my stomach, pulling my legs over the side of the bed, hitching me up just at the right height as he lines his cock up at my extremely wet entrance. He slides himself against me and then slams into me from behind. I wasn’t ready for it and my arms buckle but it doesn’t take away from how good he feels standing behind me. I lock my arms beneath me, loving the feeling of his balls hitting the backs of my inner thighs. It doesn’t matter what position we’re in, they all feel great when it’s Peeta.   
He reaches forward, grabbing a breast and fondling it roughly, keeping his furious pace while my head swims in exquisite ecstasy. He surrounds me in every way; his scent, his warmth, his strength. I want to cry at how much I love being with him, at how much I missed while not being with him. Once again I feel myself tightening and he pulls me up, flush against his solid body, nipping at the spot behind my ear that makes me even weaker in the knees, while he slows down his thrusts, making sure he pulls out almost completely and then filling me to the hilt once again.

“Oh God….Peeta….you feel so gooood!” I’m not even aware I can speak, not sure if the words made sense, but I can tell he’s getting close when he pushes me back down and grabs my hips, where there are sure to be bruises tomorrow and hammers into me erratically. “Ohfuckfuckyes!”

“You’re so tight, Katniss!” He yells out and I turn my head to see if I can see his face when he releases into me. His eyes catch mine and that’s all it takes as his whole body jerks with the strength of his orgasm. “Fuck!”

He collapses on top of me; both of us half hanging on the bed, our legs limp from our excursions. He’s still inside of me and I welcome it. I don’t like being without him, not in any way. But I know our time is measured right now. 

I wish it was me who was leaving. Leaving the man who has never loved me with so much passion, so much force, so much adoration. Someday soon I will though. I deserve the man who is sliding out of me, making sure that he gathers me in his strong arms as he places both of us onto the bed to catch our breaths and say the words we’ve been holding in all night. 

“Do you love me? Real or not real?” He asks, his voice thick with tiredness.

I try to keep the tears from falling onto his chest as I answer, “Real.”


	2. Let Yourself Be Happy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katniss makes her decision about Peeta.

I had given up thinking about how wrong it was to feel so good with him. I had given up thinking about how I should have ended it before it began. And I had given up thinking that I could just give him up so easily. 

I told him to not call me again, ever again. I needed to figure out if I could save what I had with Gale. I needed to figure out if I could put what happened between us for those four wonderful months behind me. Deep down I knew it wouldn’t work that way. Deep down, I knew who my heart had belonged to. Deep down, I knew Gale wasn’t the one for me. But I had to give it a shot, right? I had to try and fix what was broken between us, right? 

Except I came to find that we weren’t broken, we were just never the right pieces for each other. We didn’t fit as well as I had thought we did when we first met. I thought that my moodiness and general lack of people tolerance was just a me thing, but he was the same way. He could be around people, but didn’t really engage. We spent most of our first few dates just around one another, getting to know how similar we were. 

Turns out, where I had changed, he hadn’t. I guess that’s what happens when you decide that the first person who notices you is the one you should be with. How was I supposed to know that there had been someone else who had noticed me before that if he had never said anything? So, I broke my affair with Peeta off, to try and figure out if I could work things out. That was a mistake; something I was willing to admit to him as I waited on his front doorsteps three months after I told him not to call me. 

When I saw his blue Accord pull up, I stood up, wiping the non-existent dirt off the back of my pants. I watched as he realized I was there, watched him as he got out of the car, almost so slowly, I thought he was doing it on purpose. I gave him a little wave, nervous after all this time, after all the things we had done together, to one another. I was nervous. I don’t even remember being that nervous when we first got naked together, it just happened and it worked. Well. It worked really well. 

He stopped at the bottom of his stairs, looking up at me, his blue eyes weary and rightfully so after what had happened the last time. His voice sounded rough, as though he hadn’t used it in a while; which made no sense when he worked at the bakery and served and talked to customers all day long. Or maybe he just sounded tired when he asked, “What are you doing here?”

I gave him a small smile, why was I so nervous, we saw each other in positions I had never done with Gale. I took a deep breath, “I left him. I couldn’t stand not being with you. I couldn’t stop thinking about you. It was always you, Peeta.”

If he had been mad at me for just showing up, then he said nothing, he just came up the stairs, not quickly, but not slowly either and pulled me into the tightest hug I had ever been given. Talking into my hair, he told me, “Don’t ever leave me again, Katniss, don’t.”

I shook my head against him, “I won’t, I promise, I won’t.”

I felt his head nod against my neck and drew in a deep breath of him as he pulled away to open his door and let me in. My skin rose at the feel of his hand at the small of my back, leading me in, though I had been there dozens of times before. He threw his keys onto the small table by the door and turned to get my purse, set it down next to them. 

“Thanks.” My voice sounded so small to my own ears. Why was I so nervous? I had been with him in the most intimate of ways not that long ago. He had seen me at my most vulnerable. He had turned me into a boneless woman more times than I could count. Before I could say anything more, I felt him behind me, hands wrapping around my middle, tightening as his head came to rest on my shoulder.

“I missed you. More than I thought I would, more than I should have, knowing what we were.” He admitted before I could tell him how wrong I was to have said goodbye. “I knew what we were and yet I was so mad when you left.”

I turned in his arms, looking into those ocean blue eyes that were shining with tears, almost breaking myself. Instead, I unloaded everything right there. “I know and you had every right to be mad. I just went about it all the wrong way. I shouldn’t have led you to believe that it was so cut and dry. Yes, I was unhappy with him, but I figured I at least owed him a chance to fix whatever was wrong. I thought we were supposed to be together, but it wasn’t him I was meant to be with, Peeta, it wasn’t. But you never said anything, I mean, how was I supposed to know before I met him when you never said anything?”

“I know, it’s my fault too. I know that, I just didn’t want you to go back to him. But you had to, every time, and I get that, he’s your husband…”

“Was.” I say quietly, taking Peeta’s large hands in mine and guiding him to the couch that had seen way too much of my skin. He gave me a curious look. “I filed for divorce last month, moved out three days later. There isn’t much to sign for, we always had separate things. But the courts make you wait, so we’re legally separated right now. That’s why I’m here, finally. I have my own place now, I have my freedom back, I have my happiness back too I hope.”

His smile was so wide and so sweet; I thought that I would burst from secondhand excitement. He hugged me close again, “I would have waited for a thousand lifetimes if I had to.”

How did it come to this? How did I get so lucky to actually find that perfect person when I already thought I had? How did I get to find that the best man who ever lived was right around the corner all this time, waiting for me? And how did I think that I could pass him up for someone who practically ignored me for the last two years, opting instead to build grand designs that would never be commissioned and used? Fate had been kind to me, letting me get this second chance at love, or maybe giving me my first one back, who knew really?

“Well, you don’t have to; neither of us has to wait anymore, Peeta.” I replied, leaning my head, hoping he’d meet me halfway and not being disappointed at all when he placed his hands on either side of my face and drew my mouth to his. It was a slow, sensuous kiss, one that made me think of those first kisses, so pure and raw and saved for one another. And the best part of it was I knew we wouldn’t have to rush anything tonight. It would be all about us finally having our moment together, no worries about someone else finding out, about feeling guilty when I walked through my front door. Never again would I have to feel that because all that I needed and wanted was right here, with me. 

I pulled back, looking Peeta in those intoxicating eyes and smiled. Bringing my hand up to his swollen bottom lip, I rubbed the pad of my thumb across it and smiled when he kissed it and it came to the middle. “Can we go to the bedroom?”

He looked slightly dazed, his pupils dilated so much, his eyes were almost black with desire, but he nodded and got up, holding his hand out for me. I slid mine’s into his and when his fingers intertwined with mine, I knew I was home. This is where I had belonged for so long and I just didn’t know it. His grip was tight, like he was afraid I would disappear again if he let go for an instant. I only smiled at him when he looked back at me, following him into the room where we had consummated our once forbidden love for one another. I was happier than I ever thought I could be at the thought that I’d never have to deal with that again.

Once we crossed the threshold of his room, I saw now how much my absence affected him. His room wasn’t as orderly as it normally was, and in a moment of realization, Peeta let go of my hand to pick up some of the clothes scattered about the floor. His cheeks flushed with embarrassment and he said sheepishly, “I’m sorry, it’s not like I knew you were going to be here.”

I giggled and shook my head, “Peeta, its fine.” I was happy he wanted the room to look nice for me but it wasn’t necessary since our clothes would be lying about it in a few minutes anyways.

Once he had thrown the last of the discarded underwear in his hamper, he took my hand again and guided me to sit on the bed. He kneeled down in front of me, between my legs and put his hands on my thighs. I looked down into his eyes, once again getting lost in them, as I was prone to do and covered his hands with mine, lowering my head to his and capturing his lips in a heated kiss. One of his big, strong hands was suddenly knotted in my hair, which I had worn loose, knowing how much more he liked it that way, while the other wrapped around my waist, pulling me closer to him. 

Kissing him was like breathing again and finding out that everything you thought you had known about life was wrong, just plain out wrong. I moaned into his mouth when his hand slipped under my shirt, leaving a trail of heat upon my skin as it snaked up to my breast. Peeta’s tongue slipped into my mouth and I sucked on it greedily, as I would do to another part of his anatomy soon enough. I couldn’t stand touching his shoulders through his shirt anymore and parted from him to lift it off of him as he did the same to mine. My breasts seemed eager for his touch, as my nipples were poking through the silky fabric of it already, aching for him. And he wasted no time as he kissed my collarbone while he worked on undoing the clasp and sliding the straps down my arms.

He sat back on his haunches, looking at me, licking his full lips as if he were looking to devour me. I stood up and made quick work of my pants and panties. Because he was so much taller than me, his head was level with my belly as I stood and he once again wrapped his arms around my waist, kissing my abdomen and lower. He lifted one of my legs carefully over his shoulder, keeping one hand on my hip to keep me steady as his mouth found my center ready and waiting for him. One thought of Peeta and I was instantly wet, so one could imagine what it was like when he kissed me, touched me. It was a good thing he had a firm grip on me, because I would have collapsed as soon as his tongue flicked against my clit, swollen with want for him. 

“Why did I ever think I’d want to leave this?” I mumbled out to no one in particular, though Peeta stopped and looked up at me, a smile on his wet with my juices face. I smiled down at him and he went back to what he had been doing, only this time, he taking long strokes with his tongue and then sucking on my sensitive nub. I felt my leg tighten down his back, bringing him even closer to me somehow and yet not close enough, feeling his three days’ worth of stubble against my skin. When he slid two thick fingers into me, I just about burst on the spot, but held together just long enough to feel him sucking on my clit while he slipped in a third finger. Then I lost it and saw stars above me, grabbing his hair for some kind of perch and screamed out his name. 

Peeta slid his fingers out of me, so to keep me from falling, but kept his mouth on me, lapping up every drop that he was making come out of me. Once he felt I was steady enough, he unhooked my leg from his shoulder and stood up in front of me, where I grabbed his head and brought his mouth to mine once again, tasting myself and being so ready again for him, I didn’t want to wait. But it was his turn, so while I kissed him, I undid his jeans, sliding them down along with his boxer briefs, making sure to grab his tight bubble butt in the process. 

I could feel his long erection against my stomach, hot and throbbing, waiting for me no doubt. So, I dropped to my knees and starting from the base of it, licked my way up to the tip. I heard him groan, reveling in how I could make him just as weak as he could me, all with my mouth, just like he did. I swiped my tongue across the small slit at the top, licking off the precum there. I wrapped my fingers around him, beginning to pump him up and down in my small hand, of which it would have taken three of them to fit around his length. I took another long lick of him before my mouth descended upon his massive dick and began sucking. I missed having him in my mouth, missed pleasuring him this way, feeling him in my hand and against the back of my throat. 

I wrap my free hand to his backside, squeezing his butt with the same rhythm that my hand is pumping him from the front. His fingers knot in my hair, but he doesn’t push me or even guide, I just feel them there, wanting to touch some part of me I’m sure of it. His moans are getting deeper and I do it as well, since his noises are turning me on even more. I can tell he likes the vibrations from my mouth, because his hips start jerking erratically and I love every moment of it. So when he tugs on my hair to pull me away, my mouth makes a popping noise as I hazily stand up.

“I won’t finish in your mouth on our first time back together, Katniss.” He tells me, his voice deep and sexy and making my center throb even more for him. 

I can only nod my head at him as he walks me backwards the three steps to his queen-sized bed. Once my knees hit the side, I turn and crawl onto it, making sure to wiggle my ass just a little extra, knowing he’s watching. He laughs and smacks it, not very hard, but just enough to make my skin tingle. I lay myself back amongst his pillows, opening my legs as he makes his way up my body, kissing random spots and making me giggle from the sensations. Once he is settled where he wants to be, where he belongs, his cock nestled between my legs, waiting at my entrance, he tells me, “I dreamt of you every night since you left. I thought about you whenever I was at work, when I was here. You were on my mind all the time and I don’t even care that you know that.”

I put my hand on his cheek and gently tell him, “I missed you too, Peeta. I should have never left in the first place, not you anyway. I won’t make that mistake ever again.”

With that, he pushed into me slowly, needing no guidance. We fit perfectly, two pieces of a puzzle that was meant just for us. He made love to me sweetly, gently, no need to rush anymore. We kept our eyes open, watching each other’s reactions to certain movements, certain sensations. His eyes on mine took me to a different place, one I had never been to before and wanted to visit again and again. I tugged on his curly blond hair, he palmed my breasts. When he sat up, never withdrawing from me, he kept his eyes on me while holding onto my hips, pumping into me harder, a little quicker, which meant he was nearing his release. And I welcomed it, calling out his name when his dick hit that spot in me that made me see stars again and he came inside of me in a heated thrust, gripping me tightly, sure to leave his marks on me and I didn’t care one bit.

It seemed like it took forever to come down from that high, almost to the point that once my heartbeat slowed down, I was ready to fall asleep, cuddled in his arms. It would be a first for us. But definitely not the last.


	3. It's Not What You Think

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katniss was going to tell her friends why she was with Peeta now, but finds out something else entirely different.

My girlfriends couldn’t understand that I didn’t actually leave Gale for Peeta. I was going to try one more time to explain it to them and after that, I was done. I shouldn’t have had to explain anything, but it seemed rude seeing as they had only known me to ever be with Gale. 

“So, alright, Brainless, what’s your “explanation”? I would just stick with going with the hot, younger guy, but you get so testy when I say that.” Johanna, my best friend of about a decade said as she took a big gulp of her beer.

I rolled my eyes, but looked at the three women I was with tonight. It was my first real girls’ night out since mine and Gale’s divorce. I had seen them each individually but not altogether. It was going to be interesting to say the least. They all wanted to know about Peeta, how Gale reacted or didn’t to be more accurate, and what it was that Peeta was doing to make me so much happier than I’d been in years. “Ok, first of all, yes, Peeta is very good looking, but Gale was too, they’re just different. Secondly, age had nothing to do with it. I’d known Peeta back in high school, we had a couple of classes together and I only found out he liked me when we ran into one another, what eight months ago now? Yeah, about that.”

“Oh please, he’s a better fuck and you know it, Brainless.” Johanna says again, earning a slap on the arm from Madge.

“Johanna! She’s trying to explain to us what happened, stop being such a bitch about it.” The blond reprimands our friend.

“What I don’t understand is why do you care anyways, Johanna? Katniss and Gale hadn’t been happy for a while now.” Our other friend, Annie mentions after taking a sip of her fruity drink. She raises her green eyes to Johanna’s. “I mean, it was obvious when we had the Christmas party last year, to me anyways.”

Johanna looked down at her drink, oddly quiet after Annie’s question. So Madge picked the conversation back up. I wasn’t worried about Johanna, she always liked Gale more than me, and they had known each other back in college right before I met him. 

“Alright, so it isn’t age or looks or his bedroom talent. You said something about trying counseling?” The blond, blue-eyed beauty asked.

I nodded, “Yeah, I mean, I had already been seeing Peeta, but I wanted to see if I could fix whatever was wrong with me and Gale and when someone only shows up to one out of five sessions, that’s a pretty good indicator of it not working out, right?”

“Pretty sure fucking someone else was what was wrong, Katniss.” Johanna mumbled under her breath.

“Seriously, Johanna, what the fuck crawled up your ass?! I know you were friends with Gale first, but he didn’t want me long before I started seeing Peeta. Long before. The Christmas party was just the first time I think anyone noticed it.” I defended myself. “Do you know how many nights I spent alone in our room, waiting for him to finish up with some meeting with contractors or while he was in his office, busy making new designs? I tried, Johanna, but he didn’t care enough of a fuck to try and find out why I was leaving him. It’s like he couldn’t have given a shit at all.”

“Watch, he was cheating before you did.” Madge said absentmindedly with a small chuckle. But it wasn’t what she said that bothered me; it was Johanna’s brown eyes going wide that caught my attention. I watched her for a moment more, all of it making sense when her eyes caught mine finally.

“It was you.” I said my voice loud enough for her to hear, but not knowing for sure if the other two women had heard. 

Johanna shook her head, her red highlights in her brown spiky hair catching the lights. But she couldn’t look me in the eyes, choosing instead to focus on the beer bottle in front of her, peeling off the label.  
“What did you say, Katniss?” Madge asked me, looking at me and then at Jo. Her brows furrowed with confusion but it didn’t take her long either, noticing Jo’s odd actions. “Jo? Do you know something? I’m not actually right, am I? Did he cheat on her too?”

Jo took a deep breath and looked up, directly at me. “It wasn’t me, but he was seeing someone. And I did know about it and I did tell him to cut it off. Thought he had too because it never came up again. But I knew, I knew the ass hadn’t stopped anything when you two were acting so weird at the Christmas party.”

“You knew and you didn’t tell Katniss?” Madge all but yelled at her. “How could you do that to her? She’s our friend too; he could have given her something!”

“Look, I thought he was done with that shit when he had met her back in college, alright!” She took another swig of her beer and slammed it back down. “He cheated on me, that’s why we had broken up, but when he met her, he seemed different. I barely saw him look at any other girl let alone think that he’d hook up with someone else on the side again.” 

“What? He told me you broke up with him because you two were fighting all the time.” I replied, this news too overwhelming since I had already confessed to cheating on him.

“Yeah, we did, but it was when I caught him fucking some dumb ass platinum blond named Glimmer, of all the fucking names in the world, in his dorm room that really broke us up. I forgave him after a while, but like I said, that was because I thought he had changed. And he had for a whole decade it seems. He was so in love with you Katniss, he never looked at me the way he looked at you and that’s okay, it didn’t bother me. I mean, why would it? We barely got along as a couple, which is probably why he fucked her in the first place, but we were good friends.” She explained, nervously tapping her fingers on the empty bottle in front of her. 

“But I don’t get why you didn’t tell Katniss? I mean, isn’t there some kind of code out there that says you should warn your friends about your ex’s, her current boyfriend’s nasty habit?” Madge spit out. She was more furious than I was and I wasn’t even that mad about it.

“I don’t know that it had been a habit, Madge. He did it to me, once for all I knew, and like I said, he was a different guy when he got with Katniss. I thought he had changed, we were all of twenty when this happened, I mean, c’mon, it’s not like he couldn’t have.” I felt bad for Johanna. Here I was, having cheated on Gale and her having been mad at me and it turns out it was because of something she had been through before. “Look, Katniss, I would have told you if I had thought he was still seeing whoever he had been seeing. But he told me he would stop and I gave him that benefit of a doubt, which I now see was wrong, but that’s my own fault. I should have said something as soon as I knew.”

I put my hand over hers, patting it. “How could you have known? It was a long time ago and by all accounts, maybe she was the first since what he had done to you. I’m not much better though, am I? I mean, I cheated too.”

“Yeah, but he didn’t seem happier about whoever he was fucking, you look better than you have in a year.” She says with a laugh. “I mean, you love Peeta, right? That’s the whole reason why we’re here, why you’re trying to explain to a bitch like me why you cheated in the first place?”

I can’t help the giggle that escapes my mouth and Madge seems okay with where the conversation is going while Annie has sat quietly watching us. “Yeah, I do love him. It’s different than what it was with Gale. I mean, I know I loved him at some point, but when you can’t see any kind of future anymore and like I said, when he only showed up to one of the five sessions I had set up, I just knew that it wasn’t him I was supposed to spend forever with. I just hope that whoever Gale is fucking is at least thinking she’s having fun with him right now, before he cheats on her too.”

All of us laugh at that. I thought I was going to feel worse, having just found out that my husband of nearly eight years had been cheating on me. That I was just as bad of a person for having done it myself, but I didn’t. At least what I had with Peeta was stronger than anything I had ever had with Gale. At least what I felt for Peeta didn’t come from thinking that we just “fit” together. Peeta was everything I needed and wanted; optimistic, cheerful, even when I didn’t want to be, funny, talented in so many ways, respectful, trustworthy, so many things that I didn’t have with Gale. I thought about him more than I ever remember thinking about Gale and that had to mean something, right? 

“So, when do we get to meet him? I mean, I know you two are probably still in that lovey dovey, wanna touch all the time crap, but we do get to meet him, right?” Johanna asks, while Madge and Annie both nod their heads. 

“Yes! I agree, we need to meet the man who has taken your happiness to an all new level.” Madge says overexcitedly, almost knocking over her drink.

I laugh at them, “Soon. We’ve talked about it already. He wants to make sure you guys don’t hate him for being the “other guy” and all that.”

“We can’t hate someone who’s made you this happy, Katniss. It’s a wonder we aren’t about to go over to Gale’s and kick his ass right now.” The usually quiet Annie mentions. “I could have Finnick beat him up for you.”

I almost snort out the liquid in my mouth. “Nah, he doesn’t need to do anything. At least not on my behalf. I know you’ll tell him everything, which is fine, I expect that of you. You have what I think Peeta and I will have, what Gale and I didn’t.”

“Alright, no more talk of him! Let’s get another round of drinks and talk about something profoundly girly, like guys’ asses or something.” Johanna blurts out. We all laugh and she hails down our waitress.   
In the span of just an hour, I found out my husband, who I had tried to mend things with, cheated on me before I did on him. Found out that he had done it before to one of our best friends. And I found out that my friends knew much more than they were ever going to let on. I guess that’s just what you did when you see something’s wrong and aren’t sure how to approach it.


End file.
